Borderlands and Duke Nukem Movies Are Closer to Happening

1 year ago

Gearbox Software has revealed an update on the Borderlands movie as well as announcing plans to make a Duke Nukem movie. Alright here we go, another video game adaptation (or two) coming our way hoping to break the mold and make the ultimate video game movie that isn’t complete and utter trash. There have been a few that have tried to ditched the trash reputation, which was namely started by the first few Resident Evil movies and Super Mario Bros., which was actually considered worse than trash. I guess Mortal Kombat could make that list and if that’s the case, we have to throw The Wizard in there too.

Borderlands was announced over a year ago, but news has been relatively quiet since the initial announcement and many have wondered if the movie was going to happen at all. Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford spoke to Geoff Keighley via YouTube Live at E3 where he provided an update on the Borderlands adaptation. Pitchford explains.

“We’ve been developing scripts and the strategy that we’re on right now is, that it’s obviously in the Borderlands universe, but rather than retell the stories that were in the game, we’ create new stories so that the films will have their own film canon.”

“We’ll use all the characters and scenarios, it’s similar to what Marvel is doing. You can read any particular film plot in a comic book, but there’s a lot of characters, themes, and in fact, some of the situations are represented.”

In addition to the Borderlands movie, Pitchford also announced that Gearbox Software is getting close to a deal with a major Hollywood studio to produce a Duke Nukem big screen adaptation. And apparently he was not kidding. Though he was secretive about any concrete information, Pitchford shared his excitement about the project. He explains.

“We’re working on Duke Nukem! I can’t announce it, but it’s blown my mind, there’s been a lot of production companies have come at us. We’re putting together a deal right now with a major motion picture studio; I’ll tell you off the record if you want to know. It’s the exact right people that should be doing a Duke Nukem film and we’ll see what happens. It’s unbelievable, I think that’s very likely a thing.”

While everything sounds “exciting!” and “unbelievable!” we’ll take this info with a grain of salt. Hollywood has been trying for a number of years to get a Duke Nukem movie adaptation off of the ground. Pitchford is very enthusiastic, but nothing official has been announced regarding the movie. The development for Duke Nukem started back in the 90s and was apparently about to start production in 2009 when Gearbox Software took over the video game franchise, which put a permanent stall to the project.

In addition to Duke Nukem and Borderlands, there are plenty of video game movies in various forms of development at the moment. It was recently announced that Resident Evil will be getting the reboot treatment as will Tomb Raider. Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson is currently filming a big screen adaptation to the popular arcade game Rampage and Kong Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is currently prepping work on his love letter to the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I’m still holding out for a Zelda series or full-length movie, c’mon, make that happen.

It’s going to be a while longer before a Borderlands movie happens and even longer before the Duke Nukem movie hits the screens, but until then fans can look forward to seeing Duke Nukem make a small cameo in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Ready Player One movie, which is set to hit theaters on March 30th, 2018. I guess if you’re super impatient, you can start writing scripts for these adaptations and sending them to Gearbox to help push the projects along.